What we are fighting for

The leathery old Afghan man was easily pushing 70. Surrounded by Canadian soldiers looking for bomb-making material during a night raid on his compound, he spoke through a translator.

On a low mud bench sat his wife. She couldn’t have been more than 17. His grey beard hung down nearly to his belly. Her pretty face shone with the radiance of youth.

She will, no doubt, still be a young woman when her aged husband dies. His male relatives will inherit his property and she, used goods, will be unable to marry again.

They are Pashtuns, the Taliban’s tribe. The Canadian army had brought me along during a trip to Afghanistan last year, on an operation against the insurgents’ improvised-bomb campaign.

The prospect of a new Afghan law allowing wife-rape and depriving women of basic rights has many in Canada questioning why our soldiers are fighting and dying to support a corrupt government that toadies to fanatical misogynists.

The law would reportedly apply to the Shia, minority Muslims living in northern Afghanistan.

In the south, where Canada is fighting, no such legislation is needed: Most southern-Afghan Pashtuns are already there. Male domination is enshrined in their culture. Women do not work outside the home. Girls are last in line for family spending on medical care. Female schoolchildren, and the teachers who try to educate them, are attacked.

The treatment of women in southern Afghanistan remains one of the great injustices of the world. Surely, building women’s rights there is something worth fighting for.

The question is, does the military stand any chance of success?

Western forces are caught in a devil’s bind: They are fighting a war that is probably impossible to win, yet if they leave, the Taliban will overrun the country. Any progress toward gender equality will be knocked back to the Stone Age, and Afghanistan will once again host Islamist terrorists, notably Osama bin Laden.

On Friday, I spoke with Canadian Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson about his hopes for Afghanistan. We had frequently discussed that topic this winter in a variety of southern Afghan combat outposts. His optimistic outlook has not diminished.

Support for the Taliban in the south tops out at 20 per cent, the general maintains. Significant progress in building up Afghanistan’s national army, and to a lesser extent the police, herald a day when the country can stand on its own, secure and peaceful, he says.

The ability of militants to easily construct devastating bombs will decline as the police force expands and becomes more professional and effective in gathering intelligence among villagers, Thompson says. He’s encouraged by U.S. plans for a surge of 17,000 soldiers, plus 4,000 more to train the Afghan National Army.

But the Taliban have promised to continue fighting until the last Western soldier has gone.

Insurgent attacks handicap development of roads and other infrastructure that would improve Afghans’ lives and boost sympathy toward the West.

U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a focus on the tribal areas of Pakistan that fuel the insurgency, but here, he steps into the morass that America confronted with little success when elements of Pakistani intelligence were hindering the U.S hunt for bin Laden and supporting the Taliban in the years leading up to 9/11.

The White House plans at least $1.5 billion in economic and military aid to Pakistan, a country arguably as politically fragmented and corrupt as Afghanistan. Millions of those dollars will undoubtedly end up in the hands of Taliban commanders, thanks to sympathetic members of Pakistani intelligence.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon this week crowed that Canada — by spearheading formation of Afghan and Pakistani committees — has made a significant step toward solving the problem of insurgents and weapons crossing the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Who’s he kidding? That porous mountainous border has been lawless since the British carved up Central Asia in the 19th century. Intensive efforts by the Soviet Union and then America to control it have failed miserably.

I want to share General Thompson’s hope that NATO can bring democracy and freedom to Afghanistan. Canadians are dying for a worthy cause, but I fear it may be a futile one.